how to theme the community.elgg.org to match your own theme

1. install browser plugin/addon 'stylish'.
2. create a new style in stylish
3. copy your elgg theme's css file into the new style.
4. remove any php from the css file
5. replace any local urls with absolute urls.
6. add the following lines to the top of the text file (style):

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@-moz-document domain("community.elgg.org") {

7. ad a closing curly bracket to the end:
}

8. hit save and view community.elgg.org - you should now see most of your theme's elements being used.
9. where elements are not being used you may need to add !important to the end of each unused style declaration.

image

  • branding is not requested by the receivers of the page. branding is projected by the creators of the page for various reasons, ranging from attempts to control the nervous system and free will of other beings, through to simply desiring to be remembered for practical reasons of identification.

    free will allows us to change and transform as we prefer. the 'rules' of branding you may be refering to, are, like other rules, arbitrary and a denial of free will. there are no 'shoulds' in life that you can prove.

    my own reason for theming the elgg community is that i dislike white pages as they increase eye strain in me and increase the energy usage of the screen they are shown on. i also dislike the tones (blue/grey) that are used on the site. so i changed them.

    no need to apologise.

  • theme = the + me
    or
    the self
    or
    my existing condition

    the websites are a form of reflection of the self and the intentions present during their conception / creation. movement and change is needed for evolution. evolution is needed for success, since change is a primary constant of the continually changing arena of expressions as earth is. :)

  • yes, being able to offer easy versions of the elgg community would very quickly provide a more enjoyable environment for co-creating here.

  • I cud woiky on the low level code stuff if some-1-else wants to give loving attention to the design aspects and who knows ? We cud become the dream team for elgg stuff.....?!

  • i've been evolving the design of my site for 3 years or so.. i originally intended to create the site in 3 weeks. ;)
    so i'm way beyond any desire to continue doing that any more.. i intend asap to build the community that i chose to use elgg to create.
    i don't have any problems with others using elements of my design or that being added to elgg core - maybe a core dark theme.
    i'd prefer that only elements be used though, since i prefer my own site to have some originality and identity also.
    i am gradually adding all my plugins to github so all that is limiting the 'dream team' idea is limited communication and agreed direction.

  • Interesting...I'm actually interested in something similar to this; only opposite.  I really, really like the community site and would rather make my site look more like it :)  Specifically, the whole "plugins" setup is so powerful - being able to search by categories...then the display of all the plugin stats, project info, author projects, etc, in the right column (except I would rename "plugins" to media that's more relevant to my site of course).  Does anybody know if there's an available plugin that implements something similar?

  • you can locate the actual plugins 'plugin' that this site uses on github..
    you could start there and edit that plugin to fit your needs.

  • The only thing I could find is called community_plugins, but it doesn't like my installation at all (and mine is pretty much the basic 1.8.15 with all other plugins disabled).  Is it dependent upon community_themes or should the default theme work for it as well?

  • i don't know the requirements of that plugin as i have never used it.. i know others have used it on their sites so you might find more info by searching the community for the plugin name and/or directly asking one of the coders of it.

  • Thanks for stepping up anyway, and I hate to bother you more, but I made a fix on line 372 in community_plugins/languages/en.php and it now activates successfully.  I'm new to elgg so would I be too bold to just fix this simple missing comma, or do you know of the bug tracking system that I would report it to?

  • Never mind, I found trac.  Thx

  • i think trac is no longer used and all the issues are moved to github - so you could probably find a place to share your findings on github. ;)

ura soul

co-creator of reality - admin of an online social network for healing, balancing & evolving.. plus maker of some free plugins for elgg